Make Ready the Day of the Lord

Everyone’s getting ready for something. Some people are getting ready for college. Others are getting ready to get married. Still others are just getting ready to get out of bed.

What are you getting ready for?

God desires we ready our hearts for Him. No matter how glorious His plans are, no matter how powerful God is, He always makes things ready.

If you planted a garden this spring, you’ll know how important it was to ready the soil. I was roto-tilling a greenhouse earlier, chewing up the fecal matter on top and breaking up the dirt to make it easier to receive new life. If I hadn’t have done that, the seeds wouldn’t have had the chance to take off. They would’ve just died.

Even Jesus, before He came to earth, had to make the earth ready for Him. He sent John the Baptist, who went and told everyone:

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”

If you aren’t getting ready for the Lord, you’ll miss it when His Spirit comes.

He comes like a thief in the night. Most people think that’s on some Judgement Day in a million years. No, it’s right now.

We get so limited in our thinking, that we forget how big God is. We forget: this is a NOW God. A NOW kingdom of Heaven.

God has had this day a million years in the making.

This, today, is the day of the Lord. This is the day to receive Him. In this moment, reading these words, God is wanting to change your life.

But are you ready for Him?

It doesn’t matter how glorious His gifts are. It doesn’t matter how glorious His plans are. If you aren’t ready for it, it won’t matter a bit.

God’s Spirit is constantly moving. He’s working to get our hearts ready to receive Him. This is why you have trials and rebuke in your life.

If you want to find more of God in your life, run to the fire.

Most people think that’s crazy. More torment? More abuse? No thanks!

But it’s not torment. You have to realize the Man behind the curtain. He’s already set things in motion to deal with those thistles and weeds in our lives. To break up the rocky soil to receive Him.

Do you feel God’s chastening?

I did something really stupid. I was planning a bachelor party. We were going to go camping and grill steaks and… guy stuff. You know. 

Well, I was helping plan it. I got into a bit of a tiff. I got uptight with one of the guys, and I embarrassed myself. Others heard about it. Pretty soon I was hearing about what a jerk I was from others.

Thing was, they were right. I was being a jerk. I wanted to stick my head in the sand for awhile. I had already acknowledged my fault. “God, what else do I do here?” I asked.

“Praise Me,” God said.

I immediately knew why.

I was being chastened. No, it did not feel good. At all. But it wasn’t just people dealing with me–God was. God wanted to use the situation to keep me from going back there again.

Hebrews 12:6 says: “...For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”

I latched onto that when I was a teenager. I felt God’s rebuke and correction in my life, and I felt almost in awe. “God loves me,” I realized. I didn’t think: “Oh man, this sucks.”

I mean, it didn’t feel good. (I was kind of a crazy kid.)

But all I could think was:

“God loves me. What an honor. God considers me a son! Whoa!”

God has to keep correcting us. That’s because His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways His ways.

So what’s God to do?

He corrects so we can get in line with His thoughts and His ways.

That’s why God told me to thank Him when I felt like running and hiding.

God was making me ready. God is making you ready.

Thank God!!!!

If you do not get ready, you will not be ready to go with Him. That is a terrible day, if you aren’t ready.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!” (Jeremiah 8:20)

Jesus told a story about ten virgins who were getting ready for a glorious wedding.

In Jewish weddings around that time, the groom would typically lead a torch-lit procession to a big wedding feast. The procession always took place after dark, so the bridesmaids were always required to carry torches or oil lamps. If you didn’t have a lit lamp, you could be mistaken for a wedding crasher or outsiders.

In this story about ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them had extra oil for a long night, but five didn’t.

The groom took way longer than usual. When he finally showed up, the five virgins who had come prepared were ready for him. The other five weren’t.

“Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out,” the five virgins begged.

“No way. We won’t have enough for ours,” the other five replied.

The groom came through and proceeded to the wedding feast.

But the five virgins with the extinguished lamps chased after them, telling them, “hey, let us in!”

“I’m sure I don’t know you,” the groom said. “Go crash some other wedding.”

They weren’t ready.

I’ve heard about people who WERE ready. Catastrophe came. Their child was lying on the brink of death in a hospital bed.

But they were ready. They spoke the truth, and life stole the child from the jaws of death.

Keep your hearts and mind stayed on the Truth.

Keep your spirit charged with God’s word.

Keep your oil full. When personal tragedy strikes, when oppression comes knocking, when the unexpected comes calling, you won’t be moved then.

You’ll know the day of the Lord and the glory of His coming.

And that day, the day of the Lord, is now.